Shareholders of El Paso Corp. (EP) have approved a $24 billion takeover of Kinder Morgan Inc. in a deal that will form the biggest pipeline company in the US.

EP is one of North Americas largest producers of natural gas and other energy related products, and also owns North Americas largest natural gas pipeline system which spans the whole country.

Kinder Morgan is the leading pipeline transportation and energy storage company in North America. It owns nearly 26,000 miles of pipelines for the transport of natural gas, crude oil, and other petroleum products. It also owns 170 terminals for the processing and storage of gasoline, coal and petroleum coke.

Over a three day period shareholders of EP were asked to vote on the merger. El Paso released a statement that 79% of their shareholders submitted votes, with a unanimous 95% voting in favour of the deal. The shareholders were given the three days in order to contemplate the ruling by a Delaware judge that the merger contained several conflicts of interest between the advisers and executives in charge of the negotiations. The shareholders clearly thought the concerns were not too important, possibly helped by the generous premium that Kinder Morgan offered.

Dan Spears, a partner at Swank Capital LLC in Dallas whose firm owns shares in both Kinder Morgan and El Paso, said, “I think it was a good value for the shareholders.”

The merger is now in the hands of the Federal Trade Commission who will review all aspects thoroughly before they give their decision, expected in the second quarter of the year.